The things people dont realize is that it wasnt the "butch" type of guys who did it. It was the "feminine" guys that so many guys bitch about. it was the drag queens the "girl y" boys or the "butch dyke's" that started it all. Everywhere! they are the ones who got beat up and said FUCK YOU!! they are the ones who did it. Not us. The potential that the world has can go so many ways and so much... if we just stopped it. But until that day i am proud to say i am gay(cause i guess we have to) i am proud to say my name is Melvin John thibodeau. I am proud to say my best friend and one of my best lovers/partners is on the girly side and he is one of the smartest hottest men i have ever met in my life and if it wasnt for him. I wouldnt be who i am or know as much as i do.

cdnmel saidThe things people dont realize is that it wasnt the "butch" type of guys who did it. It was the "feminine" guys that so many guys bitch about. it was the drag queens the "girl y" boys or the "butch dyke's" that started it all.

Whatevs. Every ancient drag queen in NY claims to have been there fending off the popo with her spike heels. If you look at the fotos they're just regular young guys - some were femmy and some not, I'd imagine, just as you would find today in a gay bar.

Hi Metta8 Thanks for posting this, we all owe those men and women so much. I was born a few weeks later and my life was made possible by a few brave people who no longer wanted to be second class ciizens.

BTW ....freakofnature....you doi't know your history. the hot butch guys were all out at Fire Island getting laid. It was mostly drag queens and lesbians, and we all owe them alot

As we fight for the right to be an equal, this event must be announced to show what we refuse to go back to. Raids? Just for slow dancing? No. Not anymore. I took a straight couple with me to see "Milk" a few years ago and was telling them I wrote a paper on the man for a political science college course. I used Harvey as showing how politics enboldens the common person to seek out opportunity to get a fair share.

And they loved the movie. But at the end, I was shocked when my friend's husband stated, "I'd never heard about him, before now. I didn't realize he was gay."

I was shocked at what we know but the general population doesn't. So as the conflict moves on--moments like this, here on PBS too, are vital. Spread the word. We're not going back to the closets!

On a side note, the last time I was in NYC, we had to head to the Memorial Park outside (you can see it in the film "Jeffery" too) of this place. It was a bit emotional for my partner and me.

I just watched the rebroadcast tonight. I knew of the stonewall uprising back in the '80's and I am glad it is being told again. What struck me about this take on it were the interviews with the police who were on duty that night and Mayor Koch's interview.

While watching it, I was struck by what happened the next day after the 5000 leaflets were handed out. Something that doesn't happen very much today. All manner and type of folk came together to try to right a wrong. All kinds. Today, we have become so self identified that we have forgotten exactly who and what we are actually suppose to be angry about.

Sure, not all of us want it, but a majority of us simple want to just be able to live. Live. And there are still people who won't allow us. Hell, there are some of our own tribe that won't allow us to do so.

Another day of reckoning is coming and it will not be won by the apathetic and non participatory attitudes or by the splintered segments that exist today.